Whether it's been 10 years or 100, every milestone should be celebrated. Depository anniversaries are the perfect time to highlight your library's Government documents collection, services, and resources and shine a spotlight on your library as a rich community resource.

Planning Your Celebration

Select Your Celebration Date

Plan your events when you know you can gather your maximum crowd. Try to avoid national holidays, major city or town events, and final exams or student breaks at academic institutions. Planning your celebration in conjunction with another special event at the library can help increase attendance. Many depository anniversaries are celebrated during National Library Week and on or around Constitution Day.

Plan & Assign

About a year in advance, clearly define objectives for your anniversary celebration. Draft an action plan, complete with a budget and timeline. Include responsibilities for each aspect of the anniversary celebration, such as guest speakers, media contacts, space selection, patron activities, giveaways, and snacks.

Reach Out

Ask colleagues in your region and the community as a whole how they celebrated their anniversaries. Ask your patrons for ideas and suggestions for celebrating.

Promote Your Event

Brand Your Materials

Use these anniversary logos in your event invitations, flyers, on your website, on social media, or anywhere you plan to promote your event. Download the logo applicable to your celebration year.

• Three unique anniversary designs available for download.
• Available in .png format.
• Optimized for use in print or digital media.
• Can be sized to any dimension.
• Available in 15 different year options

Don’t see what you are looking for? Contact GPO about getting these logos customized with your celebration year. Many depositories also create their own unique logos. Download images from GPO’s FDLP Digital Marketing Toolkit to use in your designs.

Promote the Event

Use your library’s social media accounts, web sites, public calendars, and resources of your library’s parent institution to promote your event. Utilize the screen savers or LCD screens in the library to share information about events or fun facts about your depository.

Notify the Media

Plan your events with an eye to media coverage. Concentrate on local media outlets. Reach out to newspapers, local websites, newsletters, radio stations, community blogs/calendars, and television stations. Invite local media to cover the event. Download the press release template to announce your anniversary and related celebrations.

Utilize Your Network

Ask other local depositories, non-depository libraries, and educational and government institutions to help promote your event by either sharing your social media content, adding your event to their public calendar, or allowing for flyers to be placed in their buildings or at their events.

Events Ideas

• Recruit guest speakers to present on the importance and value of Government documents. Examples include Senators and Representatives, community leaders, local educational leaders, and GPO staff. If you would like a representative from GPO to attend or share a congratulatory video, simply fill out our Request for GPO Participation form in advance. To access the form, you must first be logged in to askGPO. From the top menu, click More, and in the drop-down select, Training/Visits Request. Please complete that and click Submit.
• Organize special guests and lecturers to speak on a variety of topics of particular interest to your local community. Ask the speakers to include information on how free access to Government documents impacts their topic.
• Plan your events to include contests or games:
  • A contest for students/patrons to design an anniversary logo or poster.
  • A drawing that patrons can enter each time they visit the depository.
  • A scavenger hunt (Find a Government book or document about…).
  • A coloring contest or Ben’s Guide printable activities for young patrons.
  • An essay contest about patrons’ favorite Government document.
  • A contest to guess the number of Government documents in the library.
• Offer and promote library tours. Focus the tour around your library's history and its anniversary. Involve other areas of the library outside of the depository.
• Create unique and engaging displays in and around the library that feature Government documents resources. Reference how long your library has been serving its patrons and your library's upcoming anniversary. Link those references to the vast number of resources and services available to patrons. Feature your displays on the library's website and via social media.

Certificates & Plaques

Request certificates and plaques through askGPO. You must first be logged in to access the request form. From the top menu, click More, and in the drop-down select, Anniversary Award Request Form. Please complete that and click Submit.

Share Photos

Take photos before and during your event. Capture lots of action and candid shots. Share your photos with GPO, and your library could be featured via GPO social media, the FDLP Connection newsletter, or on FDLP.gov. Email us your photos and event descriptions. Don’t forget to share all of your photos on your website and via social media.

Prepare for Your Next Event

Document everything – all plans, timelines, budget, etc. Include photos. Your future self or your successor will thank you!

Your voice as depository librarian is critically important in the promotion of the FDLP and Federal Government information.

Keep your audience in mind when you are creating promotional efforts. Tailor messages and benefits for each audience. Diverse audiences will respond differently to the messages and mediums you use. Serving your audiences at their point of need is important. Local collections are a unique strength of your library. Emphasize your local collections.

Reaching Your Online Audience

Clearly the last several years have seen a significant shift in the way people communicate. Using social networking and social media is an inexpensive and effective way to reach current and potential users of your depository collection. Many libraries are already using social media/networking to reach out to users. Include your library in any rotation of blog posts, status updates, or videos that already exist in your library or library system, either for special events or on regular intervals.

Social Networking

Choose from a plethora of social networking sites. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ are the most popular options, and there are others. These sites deliver a great deal of visibility for the time and effort you invest.

Blogging

While social networking sites work well for brief updates, blog posts allow more in-depth communication. You can use posts to describe and promote your collection detail. 

Some ideas to help you get started:

• Create blog posts about: promotional efforts, current events, school assignments, and reference questions.
• Consult with colleagues for ideas, especially subject specialist librarians.
• Consider writing a blog series on a specific topic.
• Invite guest bloggers if you need expertise on a specific topic or are running short of time (ill, on vacation, etc.).
• Allow for public comment on your pages; it will take you extra time and effort to edit out inappropriate content, but will greatly increase your market and audience.
• Provide "share" buttons on your blogs.

Videos, Photos, and Vlogs

Photos, videos and vlogs (video blogs) can promote your library with promotional photos, tutorials, tours, and instructional videos that can generate attention and reach a wider audience. Use your imagination and be creative. The tone can range from studious to silly. Ask student workers or interns to create fun promotional videos about your library. Air the videos on college and/or local access television stations, or the library's Web site, or sites such as Flickr, Pinterest and YouTube. 

Apps

Library users are increasingly accessing library materials, catalogs, etc., via their phones and mobile devices. Serve those users by creating your own app. Libraries are creating apps to search library catalogs, reserve materials, find library locations and hours, take virtual tours, view videos, and more.

QR Codes

Posting your Quick Response (QR) codes on your library Web site and on public postings (e.g., bus advertisements, billboards, and brochures) can promote your library to potential users. QR codes are a type of 2-dimensional barcode users can scan with their Smartphones to access library Web sites and other online information directly.

Some examples of ways to use QR for your library promotions:

• Place code on shelf at the end of a serial run of tangibles that have converted to EL, so users can directly access new issues.
• Situate codes in the stacks where docs change SuDoc class number to help users locate materials.
• Add to handouts and other educational materials to provide more in-depth information.
• Include on business cards and bookmarks so users can easily contact you.
• Position codes to the shelves of other collections in your library to link users to Government documents on similar topics or your library guides.
• Attach to promotional materials that are displayed at other libraries academic departments, and community organizations to make it easy for new users to find you.
• Work with your colleagues to ensure that codes that link to depository resources are included in all relevant library materials. Subject liaisons can be especially helpful.

Email Distribution Lists

Exploit existing emails lists associated with your library or parent institution. Ask list administrators for guest posting rights, and tailor a depository library to the list's audience. Try to rope in fringe audiences to make them users.

Create your own distribution list. Collect user contacts through a physical drop box and either send email updates as needed, or create a newsletter to send on a regular basis.

Communicate In Your Community

Leverage existing communications channels in your community on behalf of your library. Ask your city, county, local senior center, high school and/or college if you could make announcements and post articles and public notices in any communication vehicles they offer. If there are local newsletters, blogs, radio or TV stations, see if the mangers of those resources wil let you write a guest column about your library. See if they would interview you and/or your staff about your library. 

Use area resources to communicate about your library as well. Inquire at your local Congressional office to include information about your library's events in their local communication vehicles such as Web sites and newsletters. Solicit endorsements from your local celebrities, especially those celebrities who have personal ties to your institution, e.g., an alumnus/alumnae from your university. 

Build your own communication vehicles. Generate a guide to Federal Government documents for new students/new users. Keep track of frequently asked questions (FAQ), find the FDLP resources that can answer them, and generate a FAQ Web page and/or a handout for your users. Continually look for new or improved ways for your library to reach new audiences and communicate more effectively with your core audiences.

Reaching Out To Your Audience In Your Community

Promote your library by attending community social events and by creating your own library's social events. These occasions are valudable opportunites to increase your user base.

Here are some ideas to help you with brainstorming for these opportunities:

• Create library displays to highlight services and collections at your library, and to celebrate holidays and special events such as elections, exams, etc.
• Celebrate your depository library's milestones and use your anniversary as an opportunity to share your story.
• Make events for children and push forward Federal publications and Web sites designed for children. Demonstrate and share Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government.
• Offer orientation classes at your depository at the beginning of the school year or each term if your library is at a school.
• Talk to library school students and professors as a guest speaker at local library schools.
• Use your school, university or institutional mascot, if you have one, at your library events to meet community members.
• Enlist aid from your library's subject specialists; send them newly distributed FDLP materials to review so they can recommend them to users.

Increase awareness of your library’s FDLP services and resources with this wide variety of promotional materials. These items are available at no cost, exclusively to Federal depository libraries.

To log in, your username is your FDL number, and the password is your FDLP password.

Example:

Username: 0123A
Password: FDLP12345

 

The tradition of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) spans over 150 years, and we love to celebrate the individual anniversaries of Federal depository libraries as they recognize their contributions in the program. Whether it’s been 10 years or 100, let us know what your library is doing to celebrate so that we can share it with the entire FDLP community. Send us an email with a few pictures and a brief description of how you celebrated the event.

Here are a few examples of anniversary celebrations from around the FDLP:

The University of Kansas Libraries celebrated 150 years in the FDLP with an original anniversary exhibit, “For the People,” which highlighted the wide range of Government information accessible through the FDLP. The opening reception included a panel discussion on congressional hearings moderated by KU Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Reggie Robinson. Panelists included congressional hearings witnesses from KU and the Lawrence, Kansas community. The library also hosted two lectures. Richard Graham, associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, discussed his book, “Government Issue: Comics for the People,” and selections from the Government Comics collection, both of which are featured in the “For the People” exhibition. Also, members of KU’s award-winning debate team presented a mock debate and discussed their extensive use of Government resources when preparing for debate competitions.

Tennessee State University’s Brown-Daniel Library celebrated their 45th FDLP Anniversary. Then GPO Director Davita Vance-Cooks served as keynote speaker. The program was attended by library staff, former Government Document Librarians, political representatives, and the University President Dr. Glenda Glover. The library captured the excitement of the day in an article posted on their website.

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library celebrated their 110th FDLP anniversary. To commemorate the event, the staff created the exhibit, "Property of the United States Government."

The University of North Dakota’s Chester Fritz Library celebrated their 125th FDLP anniversary. The celebration included an interactive display and a lecture.

The St. Charles City-County Library District’s Middendorf-Kredell Branch Library celebrated their 25th FDLP anniversary with a month of special events including a patriotic photo booth, Government documents classes for the public, and a field trip for local children. The trip offered a tour of the Government documents collection, a scavenger hunt, Abe Lincoln craft making, and explored Government sites using the library’s mobile devices.

The collection was also featured on a local television station and YouTube Channel. This clip will live on as part of a larger video welcoming new residents to the city.

Southeastern Louisiana University’s Sims Library celebrated their 50th FDLP anniversary. Guest speakers spoke about the importance of the FDLP and free public access to U.S. Government information, followed by a celebratory reception with a patriotic cake and refreshments.

The University of Mary Washington Libraries celebrated their 75th FDLP anniversary with a presentation and a display exhibit. They also used their LibGuides to help capture the event.

Saint Louis University’s Pius XII Memorial Library celebrated their 150th FDLP Anniversary. The celebration included a presentation of the 150 years plaque from GPO to the Dean of the University, an exhibit highlighting the historical documents that the library collected over the last 150 years, and a visit from the Regional depository librarian. The Regional librarian read a passage from the Congressional Globe dated almost 150 years before the anniversary, and the library made stickers and buttons featuring the FDLP logos as well as their school mascot. Also, they added some unique graphics and used their social media platforms to spread the celebration to the rest of the university.

Lander University’s Jackson Library celebrated their 50th FDLP Anniversary. They invited a park ranger from Ninety-Six Historical Site as a guest speaker. Ninety-Six Historical Site is located within Greenwood County, so it was a great way to highlight local history for the faculty, staff, and students. They also celebrated with a cake and lemonade.

The University of Wisconsin, Madison’s Law Library celebrated their 35th FDLP anniversary. The theme was “Documents Through the Decades,” and included examples of different formats from 1981 to the present. The largest sign summarized the commitment of the FDLP to provide access to the materials, and included a quote (found in a 1994 issue of Administrative Notes) from Sheila McGarr, former Chief of Depository Services at GPO, describing the purpose and goals of the FDLP. Also on display were circa 1980s photos of their oldest reading room and former FDL Coordinator, as well as photos of their current FDL Coordinator and their new reading room.

Texas Christian University’s Mary Couts Burnett Library celebrated their 100th FDLP anniversary with an array of activities in the library including speakers, exhibits of Government information, a voter registration table, a selfie station, and refreshments.

The Montana State Library celebrated their 50th FDLP anniversary. They had the good luck of having a GPO outreach team in town for a visit when they celebrated their anniversary with a hand-delivered plaque from GPO.

Florida State University’s Robert Manning Strozier Library celebrated their 75th anniversary in the FDLP. The library welcomed GPO’s Chief of Staff, Andy Sherman, for their celebration, and received a plaque from GPO.

Louisiana Tech University’s Prescott Memorial Library celebrated their 120th anniversary in the FDLP with a reception and presentations on the history of the library.

The Vernon Parish Library celebrated their 25th year in the FDLP with an Open House. Historic U.S. Government documents were on display, and staff offered tours of the library.

The James E. Brooks Library at Central Washington University hosted an open house with cake, balloons, giveaways, buttons, and more to celebrate their 55th anniversary in the FDLP. Staff were on hand to give tours, discuss the history of the area, and discuss the program. Displays illustrated the six areas comprising Government Publications Services in Brooks Library. They included specialized materials such as children’s materials, games and kits, non-English language including Braille, microformats, posters, and maps.

The Lewis J. Ort Library at Frostburg State University recently celebrated their 50th FDLP anniversary with a cake, a guestbook to record attendees, and a Government documents display that captured the time period leading up to the anniversary. They wrote about the celebration in their blog as well.

The University of New Hampshire Dimond Library celebrated its 110th FDLP anniversary with a custom book mark, a display of Government agency posters, a display of “coffee-table style” Government publications, and an exhibit case with several publications from their earliest years as a depository.

To find more examples of how your library can best celebrate its FDLP anniversary, visit the Celebrating Depository Anniversaries page on FDLP.gov.